North Korea has supposedly selected an American business to be a partner in tourism operations at Mt Geumgang, despite no official notification being offered to either Hyundai Asan, which owns the exclusive rights to the tours, or the South Korean government.
It was confirmed yesterday that Korea Pyongyang Trading USA, which is based in New York, finalized a MOU for tourist services at Mt Geumgang with the North Korean government on July 25.
The MOU states that the company will publicise tourism at Mt Geumgang as well as working to attract investment and visitors.
The company’s managing director, Korean-American Park Il Woo, also known as Steve Park, explained the backdrop to the deal, saying, “The development of Mt. Geumgang tourism is something we have been pushing for a while, and last week employees from our Pyongyang branch finalized the MOU with the North Koreans under my instructions. This weekend or next week I will visit North Korea and think about a detailed plan for the business going forward.”
“I understand that Japan and Chinese partners will be selected soon,” he added.
However, Park offered no comment on the issue of North Korea’s exclusive arrangement with Hyundai Asan and the South Korean government, saying “That’s something they need to work out between themselves, it is not a problem I have a comment about.”
For its part, the Ministry of Unification said it was news to them, too, with one official there commenting, “We can’t rule out the possibility that North Korea is nominating their business partners to try and place pressure on our government.”
Korea Pyongyang Trading USA is famous for having previously imported Pyongyang Soju, a form of Korean traditional liquor, from North Korea for the American market.
